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When movies are advertised via earshot as pitting the disadvantaged against the government on a chase through the woods, the perceived body count racks up.

Director Taika Waititi’s 2016 feature film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, eschews such expectation (and its similar first draft) in exchange for showing the ridiculousness of that conflict, to begin with.

Director and screenwriter Taika Waititi on the set of his 2016 feature film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Chicago.SunTimes.com Photo and Caption)

Over the film’s runtime, director Waititi makes several salient points such as that family isn’t defined by blood, but by (shared) experiences (à la Julian Dennison’s Ricky and Sam Neill’s Hec’s bonding in the woods despite the loss of family earlier in the film).

Also, people with the least will go to the greatest lengths for freedom (à la Ricky and Hec’s escapade through and residence in the woods away from the government and child services).

That being said, there’s also the inverse: those with (a little) more will often only go to any length for money (à la the hunters in the cabin who interfere with Ricky and Hec solely for the reward).

Similarly, that going to any length for an objective is often comic or curious at a distance (à la Paula’s relentless search for Ricky and Hec coming off as deadpan whilst Ricky’s quest for gangsterdom is ridiculed by Hec).

Director and screenwriter Taika Waititi at the New Zealand premiere of 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Zimbio.com Photo and Caption)

That being said, the film establishes that family can transcend blood and often does. The case with Ricky and Hec is clear but Ricky and Bella (at the film’s start) and Ricky and Kahu’s family (at the film’s end) – being mandated into being notwithstanding – are also cases in point.

Rhys Darby’s Bushman/Psycho Sam is the most extreme example of breaking away, to the conspiracy theorist-extent, to be free, with nothing in tow (his rant against forms keeps this grounded in such pursuits being comically-obsessive).

The three hunters who repeatedly encounter Ricky and Hec in the woods are the only examples of money motivating those with more. Stretching a bit, it’s arguable that they are the veritable face of the people bounty-hunting Ricky and Hec.

Pursuit of the above is seen as an exercise in comic obsession with Paula’s pursuit of Ricky and Hec (her deadpan devotion being the object of television curiosity); the hunters’ pursuit of money (being repeatedly stymied by Ricky and Hec); Bushman/Psycho Sam’s prolonged seclusion from the world (made comic by his anti-form rant); and Ricky’s search for gangsterdom in the wilderness (mocked by Hec) all receiving some form of scorn from someone else.

(from left to right) Stars Rhys Darby, Sam Neill and Julian Dennison and director Taika Waititi at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival premiere of 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople (SLTrib.com Photo and Caption)

All of the above being said, director Taika Waititi’s 2016 feature film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople is, in retrospect, a gorgeously time-lapsed look into a man and a young boy’s quest for family – à la Hec’s tale of Bella accepting them both as neither knew where each was from – and the world’s to keep them apart.

Director and screenwriter Taika Waititi poses at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival premiere of 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP Photo and Caption via Easy1065.com)

Director Taika Waititi’s Trademarks in 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople:

Cameo appearance: Director Taika Waititi appears in a brief cameo, as a minister, in 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Companionship-driven stories: The relationship between Ricky and Hec in this film echoes the father-son relationship in 2010’s Boy or the vampire trio in 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows.

Time-lapse photography used prominently: The passage of time across the mountains and the revolving time-lapse when Paula searches for Ricky and Hec.